Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Open Ended Problems

Hi Everyone! It's Emily from Emmy Mac's Class.

For the last couple of years I have been experimenting with Open Ended Problems. What is an Open Ended Problem?An Open Ended Problem is a problem that has several or many different answers, as well as, different strategies to solve the problem. Open Ended Problems allow all students to be engaged in mathematical thinking. Due to the fact there are so many different correct solutions. They also build engagement, motivation and communication skills. My favourite thing about open ended problems is that I never here "I'm done!" and when I do, I just tell them to find a different answer. I don't have to worry about what to do with those students who finish quickly.Here is an example of an open ended problem that I used after Halloween."On Hallowe'en, 7 children came to my house. Some children had mask, and some didn't have masks. How many children could have had masks on?"The students were really engaged with this question. They came up with all kinds of different solutions.

This group used math tools to help solve the problem.

These partners worked really hard trying to organize their work. When the students shared how they organized their work, some of my firsties pointed out where they had made some errors.

This group was experimenting with addition sentences.

Here is another example of an Open Ended Problem that we did in November.

"On the weekend my family and Mrs. S's family went to the Santa Claus parade. Hannah, Claire, and Eva got 15 candy canes to share. How many candy canes could each of the girls received?"We have been trying to use math tools when solving problems.

Showing two different ways to solve the problem.

Ava got less because she is younger. :)

Have you been looking for Open Ended Problems to use in your classroom? Check out my December Open Ended Problems set in my store.